Well, BlizzCon is right around the corner, so I figured a little discussion about Blizzard's games might be in order.

I know a lot of people were disappointed in Diablo III, so hopefully Reapers of Souls doesn't fail to improve things.

I feel like its unlikely we get anything new about StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void.

Heroes of the Storm, the game formerly known as Blizzard All-Stars and Blizzard DOTA, will be getting a decent spotlight no doubt.

Blizzard recently put up one of their classic arcade-style games, Blackthorne, on Battle.net for free. I'm guessing they'll be including more than just characters from their big three franchises in HotS.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a thing that definitely exists.

Project Titan got rebooted so we won't be hearing anything about that. We might get some more news about the Warcraft movie that Duncan Jones is making at Legendary Pictures.

Which leaves the big one, World of Warcraft. Mists of Pandaria is over, so a new expansion announcement is virtually guaranteed. The rumor right now that it will be titled Warlords of Draenor, which is catchy but I imagine doesn't mean much to anybody who is new to the series. I still would rather have a Warcraft IV game, personally.

StarCraft is my absolute favorite from Blizzard. The original and Brood War. As much as I love II, I feel the story has been lacking (I'll get to this and something else later), especially Wings of Liberty. Hopefully Legacy of the Void won't be as weak in the story department. Not likely, but I can dream.

Next up is WarCraft. Been playing since I could comprehend a keyboard, starting with the very first. I don't have the time or money to fully invest into World of WarCraft, but I do love what little I've managed to get done with the Starter Edition. Another popular expansion title I've heard is The Dark Below. I prefer the latter because it supposedly delves into the elder gods. As much as I love the Draenei, I'm more interested in Chris Metzen's "borrowed" cosmic horrors than I am in what sounds like the Draenei moving back to Draenor. If not another WoW expansion, WarCraft IV please? It's been a decade since The Frozen Throne.

I do love Diablo. Can't beat the first one, and haven't put much effort into the second one (made it as far as the end of Act II before I just stopped). III, story-wise was a severe disappointment. I loved the gameplay, and prefer the runes and ability sets as opposed to a permanent skill tree. It's hard for me to find an ability set that matches my play style in the series, and with it being permanent in II, I find it extremely difficult to adapt to certain enemies. III fixed that, for me at least. I have high hopes for Reaper of Souls, or rather higher than I did for vanilla III.

Haven't played any of Blizzard's games outside of their big three established franchises.

As for what I said I'd get to, I feel that both StarCraft II's and Diablo III's story have suffered because Chris Metzen is pretty much the sole writer at Blizzard, and he's focusing all his creative juices in to WarCraft, and not so much everything else. I know Blizzard hasn't been the best when it comes to writing dialogue, but at least the original StarCraft and Diablo II tried. Now, most of the dialogue is worse than the dialogue in my own stories, and I'm piss poor at dialogue. There's also the issue of art. Samwise Didier's comic book style fits WarCraft because it's the style that made WarCraft into what it is today. But his art in StarCraft lacks a lot of the Aliens-esque grit of the original game. It's still there, but barely. And his art definitely doesn't suit Diablo. It lost all of its Gothic gloom and was replaced by a heavy Burning Legion without the green. I feel that Blizzard should hire more writers and artists to spread the proper feel to to their franchises. Right now, they're kind of blurring together.

At this point, from what I understand, the Dark Below is basically entirely debunked. The rumors I've heard about Warlords of Draenor, if true, imply an expansion based upon time travel - hence it being "of Draenor" instead of "of Outland". No new races but instead new models for the older ones.

Personally, I was hoping for an Emerald Dream expansion. I say that every year and it never happens. (I also want a playable drakonid race, because dragons are cool). The Old Gods are sort of interesting to me, but I think they've been overplayed. When I first read about the Dark Below I assumed it'd be a naga-based expansion, which I'd support if playable naga did not happen.

As for Metzen, it is my understanding that he is actually more involved with Diablo and StarCraft than he is with Warcraft. I believe that Dave Kosak and the various others have as much influence on WoW as Metzen does. The real issue is that Metzen's strengths as a writer are in the realm of fantasy. This is especially evident in StarCraft; the original was co-written by Metzen and James Phinney, while Metzen crafted SC2's story on his own, and it has become obviously more fantasy than sci-fi.

The main influence from Warcraft on both Diablo and StarCraft has been a notable increase in optimism in the latter two. I think all the years of Blizzard only producing Warcraft must have heavily influenced Metzen's style.

Cata, I think, suffered from Blizzard's goals for the expansion being entirely unrealistic in scope. Though Warcraft has been increasing in bad story decisions since WoW started, really. People love to hate on TBC's draenei retcon but if you ask me the Muradin retcon in WotLK was the more damaging to existing narrative. (In general, my opinion is that TBC had a good story told badly, and WotLK had a bad story told well)

...but if you ask me the Muradin retcon in WotLK was the more damaging to existing narrative

Most of us long time players (the ones who HAVE been around for a long time, unlike those that haven't and cry about vanilla being the good old days when it, in fact, wasn't) thought WotLK was when WoW was at its best, for both story and gameplay. I loved the entirety of it.
Plus, back then I was around the age of 12 so it was much more exciting for me. People don't put into account that they have grown up during WoW's life span, and them no longer enjoying the game to the same degree is not necessarily the fault of Blizzard, it is just because they're getting older.

I like Blizzard. Their games are some of best PC games that are currently out there, and despite Diablo 3 not reaching the standards of most Blizzard games, I still respect Blizzard, and their continued efforts to release fun, entertaining and memorable games. I've played both StarCraft (both one and two, and the expansion packs Brood War and Heart of Swarm) and World of WarCraft (the vanilla version, haven't reached to any expansion yet and I was playing as a dwarf hunter. I'm at level 45 right now) and I enjoy both series immensely. I just didn't like the Heart of Swarm expansion pack and that's only because I hate playing as the Zergs.

World of WarCraft (the vanilla version, haven't reached to any expansion yet and I was playing as a dwarf hunter. I'm at level 45 right now)

From what I understand, the expansions through Cataclysm have all been merged into Vanilla WoW now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taak Farst

Most of us long time players (the ones who HAVE been around for a long time, unlike those that haven't and cry about vanilla being the good old days when it, in fact, wasn't) thought WotLK was when WoW was at its best, for both story and gameplay. I loved the entirety of it.
Plus, back then I was around the age of 12 so it was much more exciting for me. People don't put into account that they have grown up during WoW's life span, and them no longer enjoying the game to the same degree is not necessarily the fault of Blizzard, it is just because they're getting older.

See, I thought WotLK had the best story in WoW for a while too, but when I thought about it more it didn't hold up (especially once we get into the patches, Ulduar as the exception). The Wrathgate Incident was the high point, and I don't think anything after that incident itself - not even the immediate follow-up quests - reaches that level of quality. The grand story with Arthas was very disappointing (not to mention the decision to have the Lich King be solely Arthas and not the Ner'zhul/Arthas fusion that the end of TFT had promised). I'll not dispute that it played well.

I started playing WoW during the late TBC era, so I might be biased towards Outland. But I do believe that TBC's overarching story with Kael was better than WotLK's story with Arthas. TBC's storytelling was terrible, though. Vanilla suffered from a serial lack of follow-through, but the simpler, smaller, more grounded narratives had their own appeal.

I really liked Diablo I. Diablo II was fun yet not as fun as the first one. (I was playing co-op on Diablo I so there's your reason.)

I also liked the expansions for the first two games. Yes, I'm including Hellfire for Diablo I even though it was made by Sierra - it was an officially licensed expansion. (It couldn't have been too horrible as they added a lot of the features from Hellfire into Diablo II.)

I was looking forward to Diablo III but once I heard about the always online DRM thing that was a deal breaker. As a military member, I might not always have access to the internet. If I can't play the game when I want, I'm not buying it. Besides, I was a bit disappointed once I heard that Matt Uelmen wasn't doing the music for III after doing it for I and II. I have Torchlight and he doesn the music for that and I think that - once I start playing it - that game will fill my Diablo needs if and when they return.

I own the original Starcraft Battle Chest too but to be quite honest, I'm horrible at those type of strategy games. I recall that I was cheating through most of it just so I could hear the story and watch the movies.

Warcraft (in any of its forms) never interested me.

Considering trying out (or returning to) SWTOR? You may as well go through my link and help get me some SWTOR referral points!

From what I understand, the expansions through Cataclysm have all been merged into Vanilla WoW now.

The package I bought includes vanilla WoW, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lynch King. It didn't have Cataclysm or Mists. It was a good deal though, only $5 from Blizzards Battle.net site. It doesn't matter for me at the moment though because I still have to renew my subscription to WoW, and I'm not even close to Burning Crusade yet, let alone Cataclysm.

The package I bought includes vanilla WoW, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lynch King. It didn't have Cataclysm or Mists. It was a good deal though, only $5 from Blizzards Battle.net site. It doesn't matter for me at the moment though because I still have to renew my subscription to WoW, and I'm not even close to Burning Crusade yet, let alone Cataclysm.

My first serious PC games where Diablo I and Starcraft; I enjoyed both very much. Though Star Craft takes the cake as I loved all the characters that appear in the story. Diablo doesn't have much of those. Though it's all about the action and killing dozens of monsters

I also played a lot of Warcraft II, Warcraft III and their expansions. I loved that with each RTS you get this level editor, to create your own maps and stories. Spend long hours in those tools!

Though, honestly looking back, Blizzard games never had very special stories, they always where a bit cheesy. Their games shine in the polish and smooth gameplay. And the long support with patches and tweaks.

I tried WoW, but it couldn't capture my attention for long; I'd rather had another RTS in the Warcraft setting.